The Challenges of Demand
Generation in 2023: 4 Methods to Drive Growth By Dan Freeman, CRO and Andrew Sambrook, SVP of Global Demand Generation

Q1 2023 started with a feeling of uncertainty in the B2B industry, mostly due to events that happened in the last couple of quarters of 2022.

The first two quarters of 2022 were strong, with companies still fuelled by high levels of venture capital funding to action their go-to-market strategies after two years of pandemic slowdown. However, this momentum decreased after Q3 with layoffs and banks across EMEA and the Federal Reserve in the U.S. increasing their interest rates.

According to investment manager Schroders, the U.S. was already in a 'technical recession' at this point with the GDP falling by -0.6% on a year-on-year basis in Q3. In EMEA, the Euro reached a 20-year low against the U.S. dollar, also signalling a weakening economy in the region.

This loss of momentum was still felt in Q1 2023, with ongoing layoffs in tech businesses across the globe. The bank failures (see below) increased the risk of recession, furthering uncertainty in the market and the likelihood of businesses investing in demand generation strategies.

Therefore, the Q1 slowdown in 2023 is mostly the aftermath of an already sluggish economy in the last two quarters of 2022.

Following the readjustment of the tech market, 2023 is the year for businesses to invest in digital transformation initiatives. Marcus East, Executive VP and Chief Digital Officer at T-Mobile reinforced this in the Adobe Summit 2023, stating that now is 'the perfect time' for organisations to invest in digital.

Therefore, businesses should take this opportunity to revisit their investments made during the pandemic and streamline their digital brand experience by taking into account Client and User Experience (CX and UX) best practices.

B2B demand generation organisations should then implement CX and UX elements in their products, delivering to verticals that are mostly focused on legacy technology with personalised offerings. These products will better engage their staff, improve their outcomes, and result in a higher Return on Investment (ROI).

Beyond driving a memorable brand digital experience, 2023 is the year to focus on competitive displacement as a key demand generation tactic to gain future opportunities.

Indeed, after a challenging quarter—and in a year with tight marketing budgets—businesses that invest in competitive displacement have a greater chance of engaging leads and driving brand awareness than before, when competitors were heavily investing in post-pandemic go-to-market strategies.

RevOps is an efficient approach to retain clients, as well as streamline processes across departments to achieve revenue Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Adopting RevOps makes it simpler to focus on the tasks which will drive higher revenue, particularly client retention and brand evangelism—both critical strategies in today’s environment, especially as retaining a client is cheaper than an acquisition. Organisations that implement Client Success (CS) programs fuelled by RevOps insights and with marketing and sales alignment, will be better equipped to adjust offerings to resolve ongoing client problems and prevent a switch to competitors.

For example, when contracts are nearing their expiration, CS professionals can offer a free upsell to motivate renewals. The same logic applies to cross-selling, by offering products that would enhance the client experience at a lower price point or with added benefits (such as dedicated support).

Therefore, in a year of difficult market conditions, implementing RevOps to streamline processes across teams to focus on revenue opportunities with existing clients is a key tactic to secure business growth.

Implementing Account Based Marketing (ABM) is in itself a substantial commitment, which requires a significant amount of resources and labour to efficiently engage buying committee members and drive conversions.

This is why adopting a 'spray and pray' approach with ABM is highly detrimental to its success, as the key to ABM is relevance through personalised outreach, content, and offerings. Therefore, it is best to focus on 15-20 accounts when adopting ABM rather than utilising it to target your Total Addressable Market (TAM) as a whole.

Whilst cliché, the well-known phrase, 'show me you know me' is what must guide ABM campaigns as conversion rates will only increase if targeted buyers are effectively convinced not only of the quality of your brand and its solutions, but also their relevance to their specific needs. For teams to correctly address the pain points and business challenges of key accounts to yield better performance, it is far more beneficial to focus ABM campaigns on a select number of accounts.

Intent data is a behavioural signal that can be utilised to personalise outreach, as well as identify priority accounts for marketing and sales.

This is a critical strategy as many organisations in 2023 are focusing their efforts on bottom of funnel (BOFU) leads. Leveraging intent data supports this process by supplying teams with additional qualification criteria for determining outreach strategies for specific accounts at the end of the buyer’s journey. In fact, the win rate with audiences that demonstrate intent is of 33 and 37% (depending on the intent layer that is analysed) according to this 2023 ZoomInfo and Demand Generation Report (DGR).

Insights from intent data are beneficial for campaigns across the sales funnel, as they demonstrate evolving challenges and objections by leads, and can inform content creation and its personalisation. In other words, intent is crucial for improving and implementing ABX—an ABM approach that focuses on delivering an enjoyable brand experience.

Even so, there are risks of overemphasising the importance of intent and its role as an indicator of sales readiness. Intent data is more efficient when understood as lead behaviour that serves as one source of signalling brand interest, rather than an indicator of willingness to make an immediate purchase.

Channel marketing, alongside co-marketing efforts, is an approach that is highly sought after during a recession due to its ability to increase a brand’s reach at a low cost.

According to a 2023 DGR report on channel marketing, most interviewed marketers believe partner revenue attribution will increase in 2023, as follows:

Channel marketing is therefore seen as a method to engage leads and drive revenue that will receive greater investment throughout 2023. In fact, Forrester predicts the evolution of channel marketing in 2023 toward a 'partner ecosystem' with a larger focus by channel marketers on meeting buyer needs beyond prioritising transactions.

Considering this evolving channel ecosystem, co-marketing is an approach that can be adopted alongside channel partners to launch marketing campaigns whilst limiting spend, by splitting the costs with a partner that shares a similar audience to yours.

However, for both channel and co-marketing, verifying your partner and establishing shared KPIs and accountability is essential for the success of campaigns, as well as to effectively advance brand awareness with the right messaging for your solutions. When adopting an indirect approach to boost outreach, the quality of your partner and the terms of the agreement set in place can make or break your campaign.